


I Have Five Minutes to Tell You an Eternity

by awkwardCerberus



Category: Code Geass
Genre: AU, Based on a Tumblr Post, Kinda, M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Suzaku POV, i wrote this to help me cope with the ending of R2, seriously, that ending was sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 16:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6573535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardCerberus/pseuds/awkwardCerberus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loosely based on the "Person B knowing they’re undoubtedly about to die within the next few seconds, likely from the gaping wound they’re bleeding out from. Instead of calling for help, they phone Person A and carry on a casual conversation as if nothing is wrong, making sure to mention how much they love them before their time runs out" prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Have Five Minutes to Tell You an Eternity

**Author's Note:**

> WOW OH BOY Code Geass R2 finally ruined me~~~~~ 
> 
> The whole second season was just back and forth between SuzaGino and SuzaLulu so expect some SuzaLulu so to even this out bc I love both 
> 
> Anyways.........I can't guarantee the integrity of this as I wrote it while in the midst of shopping so idk how it will turn out

Gino Weinberg was never the type of man to use private communication channels, especially when it came to Suzaku. The Knight of Three was well known for his extroverted, and borderline obnoxious, attitude. If he had to flirt with his lover, he would do it out in the open. If he had to show affection, he'd do it where everyone could see. Suzaku was his, and he loved when people knew it. And doing so in the heat of battle was no exception.

And thus, Gino Wienberg never used private communication.

Which was why, when Suzaku's HUD pinged with a private communication channel between the Tristan and the Lancelot, he froze up. He accepted the call in his earpiece, and his hands tightened around his controls.

"Gino?" Suzaku's voice was slightly more shaken than he would have liked, "where are you? Is something wrong?"

"That time I tried making dinner for our six-month anniversary and I ended up giving us both food poisoning...Are you still mad at me for that?"

Suzaku almost forgot to dodge an enemy shot because the stupidity of the question had thrown him aback, "what?! Gino why would you ask that now?"

On the other end of the channel, Gino laughed—although it was more strained than either of them would have liked, "because I want to know, that's why. Or, how about that time I took you out on a walk through the gardens and there was that spring cloudburst? Are you still mad at me for _that_?"

Suzaku pulled away from the enemy Knightmare and fell back behind another unit. He pulled up the navigation system and punched in the Tristan's ID, swearing under his breath when the screen took a few seconds too long to load. He could hear Gino's breaths on the other end; they were short and shallow, and too fast. Suzaku's heart sped up in his chest.

The map grid beeped at him, and Suzaku very nearly managed to not put his hand through the screen, "Gino, I...I can't reach you, I'm too far. Anya is the closest, but it'll still take her at least ten minutes."

Another strained laugh, "No, no, don't leave your position. I just want to talk. Just us. Five minutes alone with the man I love."

Suzaku began pressing at the buttons in his cockpit—not really in any sequence, just slamming down buttons that he knew deep down wouldn't really help the situation, but that he could at least try. He cycled through four different topography maps of the nearest ocean (which in fact they were no where near in any way) before he realized that he was hovering in the air, listening to the one man he loved more than the world die slowly on the other end of the communications channel, while he looked at a layout of the seabed. Finally, Suzaku resigned himself to just watching the original map, and watching a familiar blue triangle flashing in the same location it had been for the past few minutes.

Suzaku swallowed, "I'll send Giles Squadron to your location. If you can hang on for another couple minutes, I can get—"

"Hey? Can I tell you something?" Gino's voice was weaker now, but quieter and more serious now than he probably had been in a long time, "I was gonna surprise you, when we got some time to ourselves. I know that if anyone found out, they'd probably throw away my knighthood, but I guess now..."

Gino trailed off, not wanting to finish the phrase, _I guess now that I'm going to die, it's not that big of a deal_. This was not how he had wanted this to go. He had it mapped out in his mind: candles and roses, in the master suite of his manor on the outskirts of Tokyo (the one with the reflection pool in the garden that Suzaku loved). He would spend the whole day ravishing and making love to Suzaku on the damask silk sheets. And then, when they were laying tangled up in the sheets and each other, half asleep, Gino would say what he what he had planned, and he would say it quietly, and laden with love.

Gino let put another small, raspy laugh, "one of my Japanese maids taught me how to say something...but now, I can't even remember what it was. 'Aishii'...or 'oishita'...something like those. It had an 'ai' in it somewhere..."

Suzaku's blood stopped so fast and so cold, he could feel every cell grind to an immediate halt. His breath stopped halfway out of his lungs, and something in his throat clenched into a tight knot. His hands were gripping at the Lancelot's controls so hard that his knuckles were stark white under his gloves, even though they were shaking.

He swallowed again, the knot in his throat pulling at his voice until he could barely speak, "' _aishiteru_ '?"

He could practically hear Gino's smile on the other end, "yeah, that's it! ' _Aishiteru_ '. I, uh," the Knight of Three laughed sheepishly, blushing almost audibly, "I forgot what it means though. It sounds pretty, though. I hope it doesn't mean something obscene though, that would be awkward."

"Gino..." Thick, hot tears rolled down Suzaku's cheeks, but as he hastily wiped at his face, he smiled bittersweetly at Gino's last comment, "it means 'I love you'."

"Ah, yeah. Now I remember. I know I say that I love you a lot, but I thought it would mean more if I said it differently."

Suzuku wiped at his face again, "oh, Gino. I don't care how you say it, it's always meaningful when you say it," in the background, he heard several alarms begin to beep inside the Tristan, "what's going on?"

Gino had always been bad at faking sincere happiness. It was always easy to see through a fake smile, or a forced laugh. When he was genuinely happy, he could light up a room three times over; when it wasn't real, it was incredibly obvious.

This was even true over a mid-battle Knightmare-to-Knightmare private channel.

"It's just some other Knightmares," he tried to shrug it off, "listen, Suzaku, I want you to know that—"

"No, stop! Don't say that!"

"Meeting you was the best day of my life—"

"I'm coming, Gino! Okay? I'll be there—"

"I love you, Suzaku Kururugi. I love you so much. I love—"

A pause. The longest two second silence in all of Suzaku's life.

And then static.

"Gino? Gino!" Suzaku stopped breathing, he stopped thinking, his heart stopped beating all for just those few seconds of nothing. "Sir Weinberg!"

He leaned forward in his seat and screamed at the floor of the cockpit. He screamed and screamed until something deep down in him just left him alone to scream in his misery.

There was another long moment where Suzaku simply sat, staring and the metal floor, trying to remember how to breath. Finally, though, he took a long, slow breath, and sat back in his seat. His hands fell slack at the controls, one of them fell into his lap and the other went up to the HUD. His finger lingered for a small eternity before he finally pressed the "Disconnect Channel" button.

More silence.

A voice crackled in his earpiece—Cecile, "Suzaku? We've lost the signal from the Tristan. And we are unable to reach Sir Weinberg."

Suzaku tried to compose himself. He tried to let everything around him slow down until he could finally figure out how to form coherent words to speak, "acknowledged."

**Author's Note:**

> Also, yes instead of Gino going all "aishiteru", I was gonna have him propose, but then I was all naaaah that's just a tad too cliche so I just had him say I love you. #HateMeInTheMorning :)
> 
> Unbeta'd so mistakes are mine.


End file.
